I have a bit of news, O readers of my work blog. After a year and a half of tech bloggery, I'm leaving ReadWrite. My last day is February 15.

No, I don't have anything lined up. I'm starting my own thing.

What? That's crazy! I know. Read on. You'll see.

ReadWrite Stop

I'm not leaving because of ReadWrite. I'm leaving in spite of it. I've stuck around there because I love the site's attitude. ReadWrite(Web) has always been known as a straight-talking site, and that's why I fit in there. And lord knows Dan Lyons is a straight talker.

The current crew is more than capable of taking the new name and the new design and turning it into a new phenomenon. In particular, keep your eye on Taylor Hatmaker. That's a skilled MechWarrior right there.

ReadWrite's Taylor Hatmaker infiltrating Twitter headquarters

I think I've done my duty as part of the ReadWrite legend. I'm thrilled at how my colleagues and the readers have taken to the ReadWrite Pause series. I don't know how all these tech blogs popped up without one of them thinking to write regularly about what technology is doing to people, but I'm so glad we started.

I've had my tantrums about name-brand tech blogging. I've also had my fun at its expense. I don't think it's much of a service to humanity, generally speaking (with some eminently notable exceptions). I mean no disrespect to the people who do it well. I admire their skill at steering a loud and unruly conversation. I just don't think I'm cut out for it.

I've wanted out for a long time. But I wasn't going anywhere until I had a plan. I do now.

So what's next?

The Daily Portal

I'm starting a website.

It'll be called The Daily Portal. It will live at TheDailyPortal.com. You should follow it on Twitter, Facebook, and/or Tumblr. I wrote a bit about it a couple weeks ago, and the response was surprisingly awesome. That post is all I'm going to say for now — outside of more cryptic tweets, tumbls, and Facebook posts — other than that I'm doing it.

Well, and this: It's not a tech site. It's much broader than that. It will be built around a model I've come up with while watching the way blogs work for the past few years. I want to see if it can be done.

I'm building it from scratch. That will be worth the experience no matter what happens. And I'm going to take my time and do it right. My vision of it is so clear. I think you'll love it.

I also plan to play a bunch of music. Oh, Burning Man. I'll be doing a bunch more work on that. A whole bunch. If you're into that, you'll find out more here on ¡Eia!

Thank you.

To anyone who made it down this far, thank you.

It fills me with awe that people on the Internet follow what I do, and I can't thank you enough for being out there and talking back to me. I just hope what I'm doing helps. That's why I'm starting this new thing. I want to do more to help.

In exchange, your feedback is what helps me. When I threw this Daily Portal idea out there after a weird day at work, I couldn't believe how well it was received. I kept trying to get people to talk me out of it, but they kept talking me into it instead. So here we go. I'm doing it. Keep talking to me.